Up2Us Sports marks 15 years of empowering youth through sports and unveils a rebrand to expand its impact.
AmeriCorps announced that Up2Us Sports would once again receive critical funding for our national service coach program. Since 2009, AmeriCorps funding has allowed us to train and support over 3,900 coaches to significantly impact the lives of nearly 100,000 young people.
Welcome to a momentous occasion as we celebrate 14 incredible years of Up2Us Sports! Since our inception, we have been committed to empowering young people through the power of sports, national service and mentorship.
We hope you will read our latest Annual Report and we thank you for your support in helping us provide underserved youth with a coach who cares about them. This report covers our 2021-2022 program and fiscal year.
The Morgan Stanley Alliance for Children's Mental Health Innovation Awards—an initiative that aims to identify and fund mental healthcare solutions for children and young adults across the United States—honors a 2022 winner, Up2Us Sports.
On September 29, nearly 100 students from South Los Angeles attended an Up2Us tennis clinic hosted by tennis great and ESPN broadcaster, Pam Shriver. Shriver was joined by a group of Coach Across America coaches who had just completed an Up2Us Coach Training Institute where they learned techniques for using sports to mentor at-risk youth.
The creators of Only a Game, a National Public Radio (NPR) show on the untold stories in sports, joined Coach Across America coaches and host site supervisors at the fifth annual Coach Training Institute in Boston last month. Only a Game highlighted Up2Us' innovative trauma-sensitive coach training and how Beyond the Ball, an Up2Us member organization, has used sports and coaching to transform the Chicago neighborhood of Little Village. Over the course of the four days, 115 Coach Across America coaches and site supervisors participated in interactive workshops and discussions on the foundations of sports-based youth development, trauma-sensitive coaching, and managing challenging behavior. Additionally, they built new networks across state and organization lines, which will serve them well throughout their terms of service. This year's event was the Up2Us Center's largest yet in Boston! Furthermore, we were excited to welcome the eight coaches who are part of our pilot Operation Coach program, which places post-9/11 military veterans as coaches at Up2Us member organizations in the Miami area.
Click below to listen to the segment from NPR radio program, Only a Game:
On September 12, the Up2Us team helped AmeriCorps celebrate its 20th Anniversary all over the country. Over 50 NYC Coach Across America coaches and VISTA members recited the AmeriCorps pledge in Times Square to commemorate the first pledge taken 20 years ago. DC coaches attended the national AmeriCorps 20th celebration on the White House lawn with President Obama and President Clinton speaking on the importance of national service. Up2Us also attended state celebration events in Illinois, Florida and Louisiana. AmeriCorps has been invaluable in the Up2Us history, as in 2009 it provided Up2Us one of the first grants to begin hiring its first Coach Across America coaches. Since then, Up2Us has grown and placed over 1700 Coach Across America coaches to use sports to transform the lives of America's youth. These trained coaches can lead to significant increases in physical activity that reduces the risk of obesity. Coach Across America coaches have helped youth in the worst performing schools to refocus their energy into educational pathways that lead to college and successful careers.
In addition to supporting coaches, AmeriCorps has also supported over 100 Up2Us AmeriCorps VISTAs. VISTAs work as a part of the Up2Us team to build capacity in grassroots organizations that use sports-based youth development to improve the local community. These volunteers help to increase the effectiveness of sports organizations all over the country.
Up2Us is proud to be a part of the first 20 years of national service. Happy birthday, AmeriCorps!
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Coach Across America coaches from the DC area attended the AmeriCorps 20th Anniversary ceremony at the White House!
Photo by Coach Joseph
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The Up2Us NOLA team attends the Louisiana state event for the AmeriCorps 20th Anniversary.
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Coach Across America coaches and AmeriCorps VISTA members celebrate in NYC.
Cycle Forward for Operation Coach was a great success! Our New York Coach Across America (CAA) coaches came to sweat and cycle on behalf of their generous sponsors. Fitness expert, Zack Schares instructed three intense, but fun spin classes set to a live DJ and energetic music. We are very grateful to everyone that participated and donated to make our first Cycle Forward event a success. All of the money donated will go towards Up2Us’ veteran coach initiative called Operation Coach, which employs post-9/11 veterans to serve as coach/mentors to youth in underprivileged areas. A huge “Thank you!” to you to everyone that was involved!
For more information on live DJ cycling classes, visit www.zaxfit.com
All of us celebrate government when it makes smart investments that result in the betterment of all of our lives. Great examples of this have been the Internet, our GPS systems, micro-chips, and even the vaccines that keep us healthy. In the same vein, I say we celebrate AmeriCorps.
Just think about it. Talented adults are teaching in thousands of schools because of AmeriCorps. Millions of children are receiving health and nutrition education because of AmeriCorps. Millions of seniors receive emotional support because of AmeriCorps. Disaster sites like New Orleans are rebuilt again because of AmeriCorps. And now, sports is being revived in inner cities because of AmeriCorps.
This week, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps: one of our federal government's major success stories. We need to recognize that AmeriCorps has often provided the seed money to “great ideas” that we have since taken for granted as they have become the fabric of our American lives.
My own program, Up2Us, was based on a simple idea: a coach can be the most transformative adult in a child’s life, especially children who are in underserved communities and lack adult role models. AmeriCorps provided me the opportunity to hire and train my first coaches in 2009. Since then, thanks to public-private partnerships, I’ve hired more than 1,700 coaches who have committed themselves to serving more than 133,650 at-risk youth in more than 60 different sports. This simple idea has had powerful results: our trained coaches can reduce violence by up to 40% in urban communities. Our trained coaches can lead to significant increases in physical activity that reduces the risk of obesity. And, our trained coaches have helped youth in the worst performing schools to refocus their energy into educational pathways that lead to college and successful careers. And now, thanks to AmeriCorps, my program is ready to take the innovative training we have developed for our coaches and make it available to the estimated 6.5 million volunteer coaches who want to be more effective at teaching life skills to their teams.
Up2Us is just one example of the power of AmeriCorps has to light a spark that impacts a nation.
Happy 20th Anniversary, AmeriCorps. When I Google “national service" on the the internet, I will smile broadly at how many of the 52 million results were made possible by you! And, I’ll smile also knowing that Google was made possible by our federal government, too.
Paul Caccamo
Executive Director and Founder, Up2Us
Up2Us Ambassador and Tampa native John Henson of the Milwaukee Bucks, along with a team of coaches from Up2Us’ Coach Across America program, will conduct The John Henson Experience—a one-day basketball clinic at the Tampa Bay Youth Sports Expo on Saturday, July 19th. The clinic will bring awareness to the importance of youth sports programs and raise funds to place Coach Across America coaches in the Tampa Bay area.
100% of proceeds raised from The John Henson Experience will go towards the cost of training and providing Coach Across America jobs to young adults in the Tampa community at The Skills Center—a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization sharing John’s vision of providing academic instruction and life skill development through sports. With your help, we hope to reach our fundraising goal of $30,000, which covers the cost of one full year of programming by two coach-mentors who are trained in youth development, mentoring, and violence prevention strategies. Corporate sponsorship opportunities are also available for socially-responsible businesses, please contact margote@up2us.org for more information.
By donating, you are directly contributing to positive social change in some of Tampa's most under-served communities. Thank you for your support!
Greatness often manifests in the face of adversity. Israel Frank, Up2Us Coach Across America (CAA) coach at Brotherhood Crusade Soccer for Success Program, is a true testament to this statement.
Initially, Israel's goals were to obtain his GED, secure employment, and change his life trajectory. With the assistance of his case manager, Israel attended work readiness classes at the YouthSource Center. After demonstrating significant mastery of vocational skills, Israel secured a seasonal job at Vans. Combined with a sincere desire to improve the quality of life for young people, this experience prepared Israel for his CAA appointment.
Check out our video to hear Israel's story and to learn just what makes him Up2Us' Coach Across America Coach of the Year.
On May 3rd, Up2Us teamed up with the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Housing Authority and the White Sox Volunteer Corps for a community wellness day at Wentworth Gardens. The day was designed to encourage health, wellness and fitness, and included multiple stations designed and activated by our Chicago coaching corp.
The Chicago White Sox not only sent awesome volunteers to help with registration and food service for the day but South Paw, the team mascot, joined to take pictures and toss some pitches at the baseball station. Every person that attended the event and participated in different stations also received a complimentary voucher to an upcoming White Sox game. We had nearly 300 participants throughout the event day and were able to spread health and wellness and make some incredible new partners.
A special thanks to Alderman Pat Dowell, The Athena Dental Group, Progressive Baptist Church, UIC-Chicago Partnership for Health Promotion, UIC-YWLCS Health & Wellness Center, E&ES (a partner of the Chicago Housing Authority), and Beggars Pizza who were all important partners in making the day a success.
"The Up2Us Field Day is a great example of how neighbors and community based organizations can work together to create safe and healthy spaces for everyone to enjoy. I am pleased to be a part of this event because it celebrates the wonderful families that make up this community,” said Alderman Pat Dowell.
Up2Us is proud to announce a partnership with the Miami HEAT and the Miami HEAT Charitable Fund to launch Operation Coach, a workforce assistance and coaching initiative for post 9/11 returning military veterans, preparing them for a career in sports and youth development through our Coach Across America program. During half time of Tuesday’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Miami HEAT Charitable Fund presented Up2Us with a $100,000 donation as the result of the team’s annual fundraising efforts. This contribution will provide veterans with the opportunity to gain employment as coach-mentors and continue to serve as every day heroes to thousands of youth in Miami.
“Veterans often cite ‘physical activity’ and ‘becoming a coach’ as key motivators to their reentry to the workforce,” said Paul Caccamo, founder and president of Up2Us.
The Miami HEAT has a tradition of honoring the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces and we are extremely excited to continue this partnership.
Mission Continues Platoon Members, Coach Across America coaches and the youth of Henry Street Settlement all converged on Saturday, February 8th for an afternoon of fitness activities, nutrition sessions and fun. CAA coaches and platoon members worked together to educate youth on a variety of topics related to sports-based youth development, including the science of physical activity, nutrition and life skills.
At one station, participants made Compliment Boards for each other, where they wrote a nice thing about each person in the group.
Coach Across America coaches and Mission Continues Veteran Fellows talk to youth about the importance of physical fitness.
At the nutrition station, youth were running towards the cones that represented healthy foods while avoiding the cones that represented junk food.
Nancy shows off her compliment board.
If you are interested in hosting coaches through our CAA program to help build capacity at your organization and serve more youth, please complete the application below. Up2Us provides its member organizations with the resources and support to select and manage coaches through our CAA program to work with youth in our nation's most under-resourced communities. CAA is a workforce development program that contracts with Up2Us members to act as host sites for CAA coaches. Beyond financial assistance for coach wage/stipend, CAA supports member organizations to recruit, train, and supervise CAA coaches that serve in their respective programs. Apply here
If in Tampa, Miami, & New Orleans, click here!
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